Energy management and energy cost management has always been an issue for many residents because of the increasing cost of energy. It is desirable to manage and analyze the energy consumption of a residence in order to reduce the total energy costs of the residence.
With a conventional energy management approach, a residence may manage its own energy. However, due to conventional energy management devices, such as thermostats and the like, it can be difficult for a residence to efficiently and effectively manage energy usage on its own. Unfortunately, conventional thermostat systems, while capable of maintaining a desired temperature in the residence, are not generally precise in maintaining a particular temperature and thus fluctuate through a temperature range. This fluctuation can result in varying energy consumption, and variable energy cost, just to maintain a particular temperature in the residence over time.
During peak energy demand periods, utilities and service providers are often forced to purchase short-term energy resources at prices that are significantly higher than average and pass on the high costs to its energy customers. Failure of utilities and service providers to maintain adequate energy resources can lead to power outages that affect the general public and can tarnish the reputation of the utilities and service providers and adversely affect their business. As a result, utility and service providers often lose millions of dollars every day in order to maintain adequate energy resources.
In order to manage peak energy demand periods, some utilities and service providers establish reduction compensation programs and pay consumers to temporarily reduce their energy consumption during peak energy demand periods. Advantageously, consumers electing to participate in a curtailment event (i.e., compensation program) may be incentivized by being able to purchase energy during peak energy demand periods at energy costs lower than normally available. However, due to the high volatility of wholesale energy prices and the absence of energy management systems for determining real-time information tracking energy usage, consumer participation in reduction compensation programs is limited.
To achieve large-scale energy reduction programs, utilities and service providers need to be able to rapidly inform consumers of high energy cost periods. Unfortunately, current curtailment programs lack historical data relating to high cost energy consumption by consumers, and do not rapidly inform consumers of peak energy demand periods. Thus, consumers generally are not afforded a cost savings benefit by participating in curtailment programs. Moreover, since wholesale power markets are ordinarily highly volatile, delays and notice periods can cause mismatches between the cost of energy actually purchased by the consumer and the market value of that purchased energy.
Further, conventional curtailment systems typically notify consumers of peak energy demand periods by broadcast facsimile or telephone messages, and conventional curtailment program administration does not currently support grouping consumers by program design, likely response, load zone, or other means. Conventional curtailment systems also do not provide the capability for both a service provider operator and a consumer user to view, in real-time, the results of participating in an energy reduction program.
Thus, there is a need for a system and method that affords customization of curtailment events for individual consumer users and provides real-time notification and monitoring of curtailment events. There is also a need for a system and method for remotely controlling a thermostat device in a residence to achieve efficient energy management. It is to these ends that the present invention is directed.